“The Church of Friendly Love” --Revelation 3:7-13
7 "To the [messenger] of the church in Philadelphia write:
Where we live is rather removed and my wife and I both having been raised on a farm a lot like where we live. We lived 50 miles from here (in the country) and then moved to another town then here. I don’t know if you have noticed this about your town but it is not a booming city. It is what John Cougar sings about --“a small town.”
I went to school in the small town of Liberty Center, population = 900+/-. Everybody knew everybody’s business and those who didn’t were not from IN town. It didn’t take much for you to get “a name”--if you know what I mean by that. If your dad or mom graduated from LC and then live in town you went to school, your NAME would be remembered and you would have expectations placed on you. Or you would not be allow certain opportunities because you would have your parent’s NAME handed down to you.
You might know kids HERE who are known by their drunk dad, or pothead mom, or loose sister, or gangster brother. What I mean by NAME is REPUTATION.
Does anyone here ever wished they could have a NEW NAME? Are we a church where people are finding a NEW name?
FALLEN BABYLON. It is the unsaved, unredeemed, darkened, sinful patterned world trying to do its best but is lost and without hope and without God.
FALLEN BABYLON: is filled with wars because it has no truth—only Falsehood; its values are on what is seen in the world and people are living out of fear for the now—and so Temporary thrills are all they have–but what pleases in the now won’t last—so it’s bent towards addiction!
FALLEN BABYLON is a Self-Centered world where everything should make you look better.
But the destiny for fallen Babylon is Death then the Grave then Hell and ultimately the Lake of Fire.
In contrast, when by grace your are saved through faith by hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and letting him into your heart, you become a redeemed citizen rescued out of the matrix of fallen Babylon, and you have a new citizenship and a new destiny in…
NEW JERUSALEM where the false is unmasked and the Truth is evident.
What falsehood had been warring against, you now see for what it is. You have God’s Spirit within you so you now have Godly Values to live by out of love for Him and others. This lifestyle gives you Thrills that last for eternity because now making God happy makes you happy!
You have power to no longer be self-centered by can focus on the needs of others--on God and your neighbor! And because you have been RE-born, you have a new life where death is but a door into another reality whose destiny is God’s presence, next to the Lamb of God who took away your sins and who has prepared everything for your arrival.
There are only TWO destinies. You are headed for one of them. And the end of each of them is clear. This is why knowing the TRUTH is so important for you and why blurring the Truth is so important to Satan.
Now THE SPIRIT says some very wonderful things ABOUT JESUS in the letter to Philadelphia—JESUS WANTS US TO KNOW HIM! So let’s pray and in a spirit of prayer lay our hearts before the Lord so He can pour His love and truth out on us.
JESUS IS A KEY HOLDER. v7
JESUS is a DEEDS-KNOWER v8
JESUS is a NEW NAME GIVER
Do you need a new name today? Tired of living under someone else’s name and reputation that when they speak your last name they think of someone whom you do not want to be associated with? You can take the NAME of Jesus with you today—there is an open door right here right now for YOU that NO ONE can shut!
I have a bad reputation in this small town Lord, I am coming to you to make a way to change all that. Please open a door for me—I need a new name, a changed name, a name YOU can give me to make a difference.
I have been kept out because of someone’s else name—and it has been ruined for me Lord! I need you to change that! Make a way! Keep your promise! I come to You Jesus! I need you!
